Grangemouth Refinery Survival Plan

Optimism has been expressed by political leaders for the future of the closure-threatened Grangemouth petrochemical plant after unions accepted a survival plan put forward by management.

Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney and Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael spoke to plant owners Ineos on Thursday afternoon.

Unite had earlier agreed to “embrace” the firm’s proposals “warts and all”.

All 800 employees were told they would lose their jobs on Wednesday.

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Grangemouth Petrochemical Closes

Ineos this morning announced it was permanently closing its Grangemouth petrochemical plant in Scotland.

Following direct negotiations with its employees over the weekend, Ineos said that half of its staff had rejected its survival plan for the complex, which includedproposals to scrap the site’s final salary pension scheme.Read more…

Power generation contractor engagement safety programme gains momentum

The Energy Institute (EI)’s new Power Utility Committee (PUC) is developing a safety work programme to increase safety at work on power generation sites. The EI is has announced the appointment of global management consultancy, Oliver Wyman, to lead an industry-wide initiative drawing together a snapshot of commercial best practice.

The EI’s Power Generation Industry Contractor Engagement programme will seek to capture good safety practice from projects and working arrangements, improving the safety approaches across the industry, and incorporate lessons learnt from previous incidents. (more…)

Nuclear expert raises concerns about Chinese role in UK’s new nuclear plants

UK government adviser John Large says Chinese firms are rooted in state system without independent safety regulators.

BP PLC has started up a 250,000-b/d crude distillation unit at its Whiting, Ind., refinery. USA

The BP unit will result in the Whiting refinery returning to its 413,000-b/d nameplate processing capability and clears the way for remaining upgrades of new coking and hydrotreating units, the company said (OGJ Online, Feb. 1, 2011). (more…)

Total will use KBR’s proprietary ROSE solvent deasphalting technology in its upgrade of the 338,000-b/d refinery at Antwerp, Belgium (OGJ Online, May 23, 2013).

The ROSE unit, due on stream in early 2016, will split 48,000 b/sd of residue from a mix of crude oils into deasphalted oil and asphaltene. (more…)

Shell report New forecasts which indicate possible societal and energy trends over next 50 years

With the world’s population headed toward 9 billion at mid-century and millions of people climbing out of poverty, global energy demand could increase by as much as 80% by 2050, according to a new report from Shell. The report, New Lens Scenarios, looks much further into the future than most similar reports.

Shell’s futurologists envision two possible scenarios, covering trends in the economy, politics and energy over the next half a century, with dramatically different implications for society and the world’s energy system. (more…)

A fuel tanker explosion in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has killed 31 people and left at least 20 others injured, police said. The accident happened on June 29 on the outskirts of Kampala after the tanker collided with a car. According to the semi-independent Daily Monitor newspaper, the fuel spilled from the tanker onto the road and ignited.

Some reports said the majority of the victims were trying to siphon fuel from the damaged tanker when the fuel ignited. (more…)